In Her Dreams
by MrsNazarioWrites
Summary: After weeks of separation, Maya has finally found Damien. But is it the reunion she'd anticipated? Perfect Match; Damien x MC oneshot


**A/N:** So like many others, I had just so many feels after Perfect Match 2: Chapter 3 that I just knew I had to get out. So I wrote my take on the reunion with Damien!

Disclaimer: Characters/canon belong to Pixelberry.

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Maya's heart was pounding with anticipation as she approached the cell. Adrenaline still coursed through her veins from the fight. This was it. The moment she'd been waiting for the past two weeks of fear, worry and heartache; a moment she'd once only been able to imagine in her dreams. Shivering in excitement, she swung the door open and finally saw him.

Damien looked harassed, tired, worn down. But he was all right.

_"Damien!" _He looked up at the sound of his name and her heart soared with relief as she took him in. He was wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing in that video. He looked relatively well-fed and healthy, save for the lack of grooming. Maya could register some light bruises on his face and some dried blood on his lip from when Cecile had struck him.

Maya didn't give herself time to worry about that though. At the moment, all that mattered was him. Seeing him in person versus seeing him from that video were two completely different things. It wasn't as though she hadn't _literally _seen him in forever, but to see him in the flesh . . . alive . . .

She burst forward and flung her arms around his neck, causing him to stumble back a little. Damien stood still, unmoving as she buried her face in his shoulder. Maya drew back just enough to cup his face with one hand, beaming at him as she brought her face closer to his for a long-awaited kiss.

She felt him turn in her arms and her lips brushed against his cheek instead. Suddenly, his hands gripped her shoulders and shoved her back roughly.

Maya caught herself against his bed before she could fall, looking up in dismay. Then she took in the dirty look he was giving her, and her heart sank.

"Damien?" she asked cautiously. When he didn't say anything, she frowned and pushed herself off to walk back to him. "Baby, it's me," she said, gesturing to herself. She reached out for him again only for her hand to be slapped away.

"Your touch makes me sick, _Maya_." Damien spat her name with such venom that she could feel her body going cold. "I'm not falling for this again. Not _ever _again."

". . . What?" She could only gape at him in shock as her mind reeled with confusion. She reached for her earpiece instantly.

"Sloane? Check the footage again," her voice shook as she spoke, never taking her eyes off of him. "Are we in the right cell?"

There was silence on the other end, except for a light sniffle.

"Sloane?"

"We don't see him anywhere else, Maya," Ben responded sadly. "He's the one."

_What?! Then why-_

"Come on, get to your speech." Damien walked towards her, beckoning challengingly. "About how you're not leaving without me? How much you've _missed _me?" As he spoke, his voice was growing more and more strained.

Maya gulped and stepped back as he continued to advance on her, searching her eyes.

His face came within inches of hers and her eyes widened in fear. "How sleepless . . . how sick you were with worry . . . not knowing if I'm alive?" Every word was laced with vitriol but the strain in his voice betrayed his grief and the dull ache in Maya's chest grew sharper to the point that words were failing her.

Tears were leaking from her eyes as she'd listened to him basically sum up the worst two weeks of her life. She'd spent so many sleepless nights dreaming about this moment ever since Paris. These were some of the numerous things she'd imagined saying to him as she held him in her arms in her dreams. And even in nightmares.

Maya remembered waking up in Nadia's arms, sobbing; calling out to him, begging for him to be okay. She'd prayed at every religious house she came across, appealing to every god she knew of to keep Damien safe; to give him some comfort until they finally found him and she could have a chance to hear his voice again, whispering sweet nothings to her. Not in her dreams, but in reality.

All these memories raced through her mind in a swirling vortex of entropy as she struggled to accept the painful truth in front of her.

"Damien . . . I-" she cut off when her back hit the wall, but he pressed forward until he'd completely cornered her. "I'm here-"

Damien's hand slammed into the wall above her. "Just hurry up get it over with!" He shouted in her face. Maya let out a frightened gasp and flinched, burying her face in her hands and pressing herself into the wall. "I'm sick of your stupid games!"

So it was true then. Eros had done something to him; poisoned his mind against her.

She should've expected this. Eros had used Harley to try something similar with her and had she not escaped, perhaps she would be the one reacting like this. For all she knew, they'd planned to use Dames for this very purpose if she hadn't seen through their ruse soon enough; to use him to hurt Maya, to make her hate Damien.

All this time, she'd been so worried about him being seriously hurt or wounded. But physical threats were never enough to break Damien Nazario. No, this was Eros' trademark- emotional manipulation. He'd said it himself. _"They know to hit where it hurts." _First they'd used Beitan. And now that that wouldn't work, they'd used a copy of Maya and she had done nothing to stop it.

This was all her fault and she already knew it. But that didn't make it hurt any less.

There was another shift of movement on his part and Maya felt an increase in the space between them. She slowly turned to face him again. Damien had backed away and there was a mixture of anger, pain and guilt in his expression. As soon as she locked eyes with him, his face changed again, forcing the emotions back.

She distantly heard light footsteps and from the corner of her eye, she registered Alana marching into the cell. Maya quickly held up a hand from under his arm, discreetly motioning for her to wait a moment. Damien was so busy scrutinizing Maya that if he'd noticed the new presence, he didn't show it.

Alana frowned, but complied, as she looked between them, her posture rigid as she stood ready for action.

"Well?!"

Maya's silence had only seemed to anger Damien more and she clenched her fists to steel her nerves, straightening up. "I really did miss you, I-" Suddenly, an ugly thought that she'd long suppressed came back to her, reminding her of the nagging doubts she'd been plagued with before and had wanted to set straight. Without thinking, she blurted out, "Nothing happened between me and Dames- the copy- him, I promise!"

He drew further back, momentarily confused and she winced internally. _Shit. Why did I even bring that up?! _"Copy? Dames? What the hell are you-" Then his eyes narrowed again. "Don't screw with me." he growled.

Maya's breath caught in her throat again as his glare deepened, but she forced herself to continue. "After all the horrible things we went through in the Arctic, I- you don't know how happy I was to be safe with you in Paris, but when I found out-" Maya took a deep, shaky breath again. "Living in such a beautiful place should've been paradise, but without you, I might as well have been in hell."

Honestly? This was one of the cheesiest things she'd ever said in her life and her logic was telling her that in this present situation, it was a _bad _idea. But at the moment, she'd gone blank. The distrust in his eyes was killing her and all she wanted was for him to believe that she truly cared about him. That she hadn't left him behind in that frozen wasteland to have fun traveling the world.

He cocked his head, clearly not believing her. "Really?" His bitter scowl seemed to tear through every fiber of her being. "Maybe that's where you belong."

"Damien . . . please . . ." Her chest constricted, and her limbs stiffened as he came closer again and trapped her against the wall. "Please, I'm being sincere. It really is me!" She could barely get words out of her mouth and when she did, they were stammers. "I'm not lying to you!" she cried, wrought with fright. "I swear!"

Alana stepped forward and tugged at Damien's shoulder, pushing him back roughly, as she placed herself between the two of them. "Enough with the dramatics, Damien!" she said sharply. "You're scaring her!"

Damien blinked in shock and the anger momentarily disappeared from his face when he finally noticed Alana for the first time. He looked between the two of them briefly. "Alana?"

"It's us, Damien," Alana spoke firmly. "And we came for you. Now _let's go_."

He frowned at her. "Why should I?" There was suspicion in his tone again.

"Because Ben and Sloane can only hold down the fort at the control room for so long. And Nadia and Steve are out waiting for us. We have to go. There's no time for all this!"

Maya watched in silence as they argued, until an idea occurred to her. Sloane had mentioned that Eros couldn't have copied details or facts from memories – only impressions and feelings. Perhaps that would convince Damien that she and Alana were real, not matches sent to fool him? With that in mind, she racked her brain for things only she and Damien could know.

"You save up quarters throughout the week," she spoke so abruptly that Damien and Alana stopped in their tracks to stare at her in confusion. Then comprehension dawned on Alana's face and she fell silent, allowing her to continue. Taking a deep breath, Maya stepped forward. "So that you can play that stupid song at Silver Wolf's jukebox again and again just to annoy Nadia."

Damien's expression was unreadable. He didn't respond, but didn't seem to react negatively to that either. Taking that as a good sign, Maya pressed on, a gentle smile on her face as she continued to reassure him with every good memory she could think of.

"Remember when we begged the Paper Works employees to release their leather-embossed binders a day early? Because that street performer ghosted Nadia and she wouldn't leave her room?"

"What are you trying to pull here?" he demanded. "It's not going to-"

"Damien, your lucky number is seven," she gazed into his eyes as she spoke of his family. "You said it was the best birthday you had as a kid . . . the last one before your dad passed."

There was a flicker of something in his eyes and his shoulders turned lax as Maya continued to approach him; carefully, as she hoped she was able to get him to trust her again. "Your default password's your mom's birthday. You told me once that it doesn't matter how unsafe that is, how predictable." The memory seemed to replay before her eyes as she retold the story and her heart swelled with empathy, which reflected in her voice. "Yet you can't bring yourself to change it."

"Stop." He clenched his jaw.

"Not until you say you believe me," she begged. "Damien _please_."

He turned his face away, fixating his gaze on the wall. "No." His voice broke as he said it.

"When we first met-"

"Maya-!" he cut himself off and placed his hands on the wall. "Damn it," he muttered.

"When we first met," she began again, furiously wiping tears from her eyes. She was _not _going to give up this easily. She would not fail him this time, neither in her dreams, nor in reality. Eros might have tried to break him, but she would fix this. They were not going to take her Damien away from her. Never again.

"It was at a coffee shop – Starbucks, to be specific. To discuss Nadia's stalker case; I was accompanying her for moral support. I didn't know what you looked like, so I was waiting for her to show up so she could point you out." The words came tumbling out of her as she spoke.

"You were waiting at the other side to pick up your order – a black coffee. I'd ordered a frozen white mocha." She laughed briefly at the memory. "When I picked it up, I turned around and saw you reading one of your files." She chuckled again. "Now that I think about it, you were likely reviewing the details of our case."

"Stop it!" The glimmer of emotion in his eyes told her she was getting through to him and she walked towards him again, emboldened.

"Nadia showed up literally out of nowhere to apologize for being late. She came from behind and yelled so loudly that I got startled and I bumped into you, spilling both our drinks all over your clothes and the files you were holding."

She inhaled sharply and pressed her lips together to suppress the laughter bubbling in her throat as she pictured the scene like it had happened yesterday. "You were already so irritated because you were hungover from drinking the night before and I apologized so many times! That was when I told Nadia: 'Look what you made me do! First we're already late to meet this Private Investigator and now I spilled coffee all over some-'"

"Enough!" A moment passed in tense silence and Damien shut his eyes, refusing to look at her or Alana, as he breathed deeply. "Sentimental anecdotes and useless trivia aren't going to break me." He stated coldly.

"It's not useless trivia!" She retorted. "They're pieces of who you are. Things Eros couldn't scan with their machines or program into a copy. They're you, Damien." Then she added in a quiet whisper. "And they're _us_, too."

Damien finally turned around, but still didn't look at her. Instead, he glowered at the camera overhead. "You really don't know when to stop, do you?" He snarled.

Maya could hear more sniffling on the other end. "Oh my god," Sloane's broken whisper barely came through. "How could they do this. . ."

"The only two people I've-" Damien stopped, his clenched fists were trembling as he shook his head.

Maya's eyes widened. He hadn't used the word, but she'd heard it; she herself had almost admitted it at the Eiffel Tower. Though nothing had happened between her and Dames beyond a passionate kiss, her sort-of-a-confession had still had her reeling in guilt for weeks, having said such strong words only meant for Damien's ears when he wasn't even there. She'd longed to hear those words back from him. But if that was what he'd almost said now, that too, like this …

_Oh Damien . . . _She swallowed hard. _I should've been there with you . . . I'm so sorry . . ._

Slowly, Damien turned back to Maya, his eyes blazing with an unrecognizable fury. "Get out." She started to shake her head desperately and he reached her within a few strides. "Get _out_!" He roared and she stumbled back into Alana, who remained rooted in place. Maya turned to her, shaking with desperation. Alana said nothing, but continued to stare him down coolly; a calculative gaze on her features.

"Fine," she finally replied. "We'll go."

"What?!" Maya gasped. "But-"

Alana turned to her and nodded towards the exit. Her expression remained neutral, but there was a significant look in her eyes imploring her to cooperate.

Maya bit her lip and nodded, wiping her face again before she turned to leave. She'd gotten an idea of what Alana was planning on doing, but she sure as hell hoped whatever it was would work. She would rather die here than leave Damien behind ever again.

There was no sound from him and her heart grew heavier with each step. She reached the door and, her shoulders quaking slightly as she moved to step out of the cell. _I'm sorry Damien._

" . . . Wait."

And just like that her stomach flipped at his sudden change in tone. She pressed her lips together to maintain self-control as she turned around. He was walking towards her carefully. Her chest began to tighten again as Damien approached her, not out of fear this time. The rage and animosity on his features were completely gone and now replaced with confusion and . . . hope?

"You . . . walked away?"

She nodded slowly. "You asked us to."

Something seemed to dawn on him and his lips slowly curved into a smile- a smile she hadn't seen in ages. "You walked away," he repeated.

Maya kept quiet this time, allowing him to study her. After a few moments, she realized he was watching her expectantly. She opened her mouth but froze up again, unsure of what to do next, afraid that she'd say something stupid and spook him again. "I . . . really don't know what I'm supposed to say here," she admitted lamely.

"You're . . . listening to me," he choked out. "You actually listened to me."

Damien stepped into her space as he studied her. He was standing so close to Maya that she could feel the warmth of his body and another sort of warmth in his eyes. She suppressed the urge to step closer and stayed right where she was, allowing him to take her in.

He raised his hand again and Maya let out a small, soft gasp as he gently touched her face. She closed her eyes and shuddered in anticipation before gazing at him again. His fingers were shaking as he ran his thumb against her cheek. Damien's eyes communicated something drastically different from before; she could see everything now – hope … hurt … longing … relief… trust.

"Maya?" he whispered her name, his softened eyes instantly turning glassy as recognition finally dawned on him.

Maya nodded tearfully and leaned into his touch, sliding her hand over his. "I'm here," she barely managed to get out before inhaling sharply.

One tear rolled down his cheek. Then another. Then more. All his inner walls seemed to break down as he let himself feel her. "Oh god . . ." Damien cupped her face with both his hands now, pressing his forehead to hers. His eyes were squeezed shut as his breaths came out sharp and ragged. "You're here. You're real." He was sobbing lightly as he pressed his lips to her cheeks, which were salty and wet with tears.

Maya leaned in and clutched his shirt. "I tried to tell you," she giggled through her relieved sobs.

He laughed with her and immediately his arms were around her, pulling her into a tight embrace that she returned wholeheartedly. Their tears soaked each others' clothes as they held each other tightly for dear life.

Maya pulled back, cupping Damien's face and proceeded to shower him with quick, desperate kisses before pressing her lips to his hungrily. It was amazing she even had any tears left to cry after all this time, yet they seemed to flow endlessly as she let her emotions loose.

She could feel him trembling as he responded by holding her close, pressing his cheek against hers, burying his fingers in her hair and planting a slow, gentle kiss to her temple.

Just as she was about to lose herself in the moment, the sound of Alana clearing her throat made them both look up. "I don't mean to interrupt." She was watching them with a small smile, though her features were tight with urgency. "I gave you as much time as I could, but we _really_ need to go."

"Right. Of course." They stepped apart and Damien rushed across the room, pulling her into a hug as well.

"Hey, what are you-" Alana froze and then patted his back awkwardly as she tried to return the hug. Maya couldn't help giggling at the sight.

"Damien's actually hugging someone out of choice, Alana," she teased. "Enjoy it while it lasts!"

Alana rolled her eyes, cracking an amused smile. Then she cleared her throat again. "You don't have to do this Damien," she said.

Damien let her go, grinning broadly. "And you didn't have to put yourself at risk. Not for me. Thank you." A look of understanding passed between them and Alana's smile widened.

"I'm glad you're okay, partner." she chuckled. "Now, shall we?" With the heavy tension in the room finally lifted, the three of them exchanged a brief laugh as they moved to exit the cell.

Damien turned to Maya, lacing her fingers with his, smiling at her adoringly. "Let's get the hell outta here, doll."

Maya was smiling in a way she hadn't done so in weeks. It was to the point that her face was beginning to hurt, having been unaccustomed to the action all this time. But she didn't care. This wasn't just a dream anymore, this was her reality; one in which she could open her eyes and see Damien again, feel him again. They were finally together.


End file.
